Kimora Lee Simmons and Tim Leissner are getting divorced amid a scandal
30 april 2026 в 17:13
Kimora Lee Simmons has officially ended her relationship. Tim Leissner, her husband of over ten years and a former Goldman Sachs banker embroiled in a multi-billion dollar fraud case in Malaysia (1MDB), filed for divorce just as he began serving a two-year prison sentence. The timing is terrible, and the situation appears even more complicated. The internet, as expected, is voicing its opinions.
Some of these opinions are quite loud. «She's leaving him because he’s in prison». «He filed first to save face». «This was always meant to end».
Perhaps. Or maybe the gossip doesn’t reflect the true nature of the situation. Because something that looks like a clean break is almost never that, and the real end of a marriage usually happens long before anyone signs any documents.
I want to say this gently, as someone who helps couples through the most difficult moments of their lives: a divorce filed in a week like this one was not decided in just one week.
When a long marriage reaches the stage of paperwork, the relationship has typically been slowly deteriorating for several years. There have been conversations that never happened. There have been attempts to reach each other that were unsuccessful. There have been nights when one of them lay in bed wondering if this person was really who they thought they married, and fell asleep without saying anything.
Tim Leissner pleaded guilty in 2018. This means that Kimora has been a public face of a frequent disaster for seven years. Seven years of headlines, court hearings, asset forfeiture disputes, raising children in these conditions, and trying to keep the family together while her husband slowly, legally fell apart in front of the public eye.
In such a situation, it’s impossible to remain neutral. Even the most loving partner gets tired. Even the most devoted partner starts to protect themselves in small, quiet ways. A marriage that ends up in court rarely resembles the one that began. It’s a marriage that has survived or not survived after a thousand small ruptures that no one outside the home ever saw.
So when people say, «She left him because he went to prison», - I would suggest the following. She didn’t leave him because of prison. She made a decision that was likely years in the making, and the prison sentence is just the moment when the public saw it.
This is what makes this situation much more complicated than the public thinks.
When one partner goes through something truly shameful in public, the other partner finds themselves in a no-win situation. Staying means being loyal, but also looking like someone who is complicit. Leaving means abandoning him at his most difficult moment. There’s no scenario in which Kimora will be viewed favorably by strangers, and she understands that.
In my office, I often see this dynamic in less dramatic forms. One partner faces financial ruin, a relapse into addiction, betrayal that becomes the story of their marriage. The other partner is expected to play the role of the emotional saint. To stay forever, never feel resentment, never need anything for themselves. Real people can’t do that. They try, they get exhausted, and one day they realize that the marriage they are fighting for is actually no longer the one they are in.
If you’re reading this and recognize something of your situation in it, it’s worth taking a few minutes to reflect on your attachment. Not because your story is similar to theirs, but because the underlying patterns are surprisingly consistent across very different lives.
Another thing critics overlook: divorce is not a verdict on whether two people loved each other. Many marriages end between people who still, in some sense, love each other. Loving someone and being able to stay married to them are two different questions, and confusing them is one of the cruelest things our culture does to people in Kimora’s position.
The common opinion on celebrity divorces is to hire a lawyer, develop a strategy for communicating with the press, and never speak again. This works for those who…
Some of these opinions are quite loud. «She's leaving him because he’s in prison». «He filed first to save face». «This was always meant to end».
Perhaps. Or maybe the gossip doesn’t reflect the true nature of the situation. Because something that looks like a clean break is almost never that, and the real end of a marriage usually happens long before anyone signs any documents.
I want to say this gently, as someone who helps couples through the most difficult moments of their lives: a divorce filed in a week like this one was not decided in just one week.
When a long marriage reaches the stage of paperwork, the relationship has typically been slowly deteriorating for several years. There have been conversations that never happened. There have been attempts to reach each other that were unsuccessful. There have been nights when one of them lay in bed wondering if this person was really who they thought they married, and fell asleep without saying anything.
Tim Leissner pleaded guilty in 2018. This means that Kimora has been a public face of a frequent disaster for seven years. Seven years of headlines, court hearings, asset forfeiture disputes, raising children in these conditions, and trying to keep the family together while her husband slowly, legally fell apart in front of the public eye.
In such a situation, it’s impossible to remain neutral. Even the most loving partner gets tired. Even the most devoted partner starts to protect themselves in small, quiet ways. A marriage that ends up in court rarely resembles the one that began. It’s a marriage that has survived or not survived after a thousand small ruptures that no one outside the home ever saw.
So when people say, «She left him because he went to prison», - I would suggest the following. She didn’t leave him because of prison. She made a decision that was likely years in the making, and the prison sentence is just the moment when the public saw it.
This is what makes this situation much more complicated than the public thinks.
When one partner goes through something truly shameful in public, the other partner finds themselves in a no-win situation. Staying means being loyal, but also looking like someone who is complicit. Leaving means abandoning him at his most difficult moment. There’s no scenario in which Kimora will be viewed favorably by strangers, and she understands that.
In my office, I often see this dynamic in less dramatic forms. One partner faces financial ruin, a relapse into addiction, betrayal that becomes the story of their marriage. The other partner is expected to play the role of the emotional saint. To stay forever, never feel resentment, never need anything for themselves. Real people can’t do that. They try, they get exhausted, and one day they realize that the marriage they are fighting for is actually no longer the one they are in.
If you’re reading this and recognize something of your situation in it, it’s worth taking a few minutes to reflect on your attachment. Not because your story is similar to theirs, but because the underlying patterns are surprisingly consistent across very different lives.
Another thing critics overlook: divorce is not a verdict on whether two people loved each other. Many marriages end between people who still, in some sense, love each other. Loving someone and being able to stay married to them are two different questions, and confusing them is one of the cruelest things our culture does to people in Kimora’s position.
The common opinion on celebrity divorces is to hire a lawyer, develop a strategy for communicating with the press, and never speak again. This works for those who…
© Zhinobaeva Margarita
